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The real scandal: HHS & Obamacare inadequacies

When Barack Obama campaigned for President in 2008, he offered a vision for America that excited the masses and provided hope of a prosperous future. A future filled with economic security, peace, and equality for all.

In this proclamation to the American people, President Obama made promises about fixing America’s broken immigration and healthcare systems. The energy and passion surrounding his campaign made it seem that these campaign promises, if fully realized, would usher in the grand finale to these very complex issues.

Instead, we have more uncertainty and division on these issues than ever before.

To make matters worse (or better) for healthcare reform, the Secretary of Health & Human Services (HHS), Kathleen Sebelius has become the “bull’s-eye” of political (and possibly legal) investigation for her solicitation of private entities to help fund the implementation of ObamaCare. Enroll America, which is run by former Obama White House and campaign staffers, is a nonprofit organization whose purposes are to raise public awareness of the new health care reforms and to help set up the exchanges.

Scandal implications aside (government cannot solicit any organization or individual that it regulates or with whom it does business), the issue with ObamaCare is cost containment. Taxes on medical devices drive up costs and only serve to complicate the implementation of this law.

But in the eyes of this administration, the fact that very few young people have any knowledge of or seem interested in signing up for the new health plans in these exchanges is most concerning. If this trend continues, when the uninsured are added to these exchanges, the lack of young, healthy people will drive up costs of these newly available plans.

Without young people, ObamaCare fails.

This is the dilemma for the Obama administration and the reason why HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is campaigning for funds and public awareness. They desperately need young people to jump on board, and fast.

I won’t doubt the sincerity of President Obama, his administration, or members of Congress who voted to pass such a massive overhaul of our healthcare system. They may have truly believed they were doing something good. I do, however, question their judgment.

You see, even if young, healthy people joined these exchanges (which they haven’t yet), ObamaCare did little to address cost containment–and in fact, made it worse. You don’t fix a “broken” healthcare system by adding to the cost, which was the problem to begin with for many families. And you certainly don’t pass a bill this large to find out later what was in it. Thank you for that line, Nancy Pelosi.

We have bought into this terrible idea that when it comes to legislating noble causes, comprehensive legislation is best. Rather than address problems as quickly and effectively as we can, our leaders, at our request, seek to resolve issues as painlessly as possible–without much thought and consideration.

Our broken healthcare system still remains. And the symptoms are getting worse, not better. We need new solutions. Ones that don’t involve 1,000 page laws.